This invention relates to a combination hardware and software toy system, and, in particular, toy design system software for designing toy layouts that can be built using interconnecting hardware toy pieces.
Various toys with hardware pieces exist that allow the construction of structures, buildings, vehicles or tracks, including erector sets, race car tracks, and railroad tracks. There are drawing software programs that allow the player to draw a picture the player desires, including structures, buildings, vehicles and tracks. However, the two domains of toys with hardware pieces and software drawing programs have not been combined to provide a useful toy that will easily allow the player to design a toy layout that can be built using the hardware toy pieces. In the prior art, a player could use a drawing program that does not consider the inventory of hardware toy pieces. Alternatively, a player could commence building a toy layout with the hardware toy pieces without knowing the outcome. In either case, the player had no assurance that the toy layout could be completed using the limited quantity of hardware toy pieces available to the player. Furthermore, the player has no assurance that the toy layout will function properly until it is built using the hardware toy pieces.